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CreatingColors There are two ways to create colors in a photograph. One method,called additive, starts with three basic colors and adds themtogether to produce some other colors. The second method, calledsubtractive, starts with white light and by taking away some or all other colors leaves the one desired. In the additive method separate colored lights arecombined to produce various other colors. The three additive primarycolors are green, red and blue . Mixed in varyingproportions, they can produce all colors. Green and red light mix to produce yellow, redand blue light mix to produce magenta, green and blue mix toproduce cyan. When equal parts of all three of theseprimary colored beams of light overlap, the mixture appears white to the eye.Inthe subtractive process, colors are produced when dye absorbs some wavelengths and so passes on only part ofthe spectrum. The subtractive primaries are cyan , magenta , and yellow; these are the pigments or dyesthat absorb red, green and bluewavelengths, respectively, thus subtracting them from whitelight. These dye colors are the complementary colors tothe three additive primaries of red, green and blue. Properlycombined, the subtractive primaries can absorb all colorsof light, producing black. But, mixed in varyingproportions they too can produce any color in the spectrum.Whethera particular color is obtained by adding colored lights together or by subtracting some light from the total spectrum, theresult looks the same to the eye. The additive process was employed for earlycolor photography. But the subtractive method, while requiring complexchemical techniques, has turned out to be more practical andis the basis of all modern color films. | 
